Seeing Him Again, of All People
I took a deep breath and stood up,
my heels clicking sharply against the floor,
as though I were walking step by step toward an unknown tribunal.
The lights onstage suddenly blazed on,
and every gaze converged at once.
I tried to make myself smile, but I could feel my fingers trembling.
That nervousness felt like being stripped of my last layer of disguise, left standing naked before everyone.
I braced myself and glanced out at the audience.
Then my whole body instantly went rigid.
At that moment, my breathing almost stopped.
Under the lights, the person sitting in the very front row of the audience looked like-Gu Hansheng!
My heart tightened, and I hurriedly swept my gaze from the stage toward the crowd.
The lights were too bright, and it was dark below. I narrowed my eyes, trying hard to make him out, but saw nothing.
Perhaps... I had been mistaken.
Gu Hansheng should have been away on business with his white moonlight. How could he possibly be somewhere like this?
I took a deep breath and suppressed that inexplicable unease.
The accompaniment suddenly began.
The stage lights shifted, and my thoughts were instantly pulled back to the dance.
I had studied dance before.
The moment the music struck, I automatically slipped into the rhythm.
The act I had signed up to perform was a modern dance, and the movements were supposed to be crisp and clean.
But looking at those male spectators below, their eyes full of excitement, I added a few extra twists of my waist on the spot.
As the lights swept over me, the hem of my dress fluttered slightly, and my slender waist swayed gently to the beat.
Whistles and applause rose one after another.
I gritted my teeth and danced with more focus and sensuality than ever before.
At that moment, my mother's eyes, red from crying, my father's furious roars, and that ten-million debt that weighed on me until I could barely breathe flashed through my mind.
If I could win the prize money-perhaps everything could change.
The music grew faster and faster, and I threw myself ever more deeply into the movements.
When I finally landed the last turn, the entire stage fell silent for several seconds.
Then thunderous applause erupted.
I bowed slightly to the audience, trying to keep my breathing steady.
At that very instant, I seemed to catch sight of those calm eyes again, gazing at me from deep within the crowd.
I didn't dare look any longer and lowered my head as I left the stage.
Backstage was even livelier than before.
When I returned, the expressions of the contestants around me had all changed.
Before, the looks they had given me had held disdain, doubt, and even mockery.
Now, however, there was an indescribable measure of surprise.
They hadn't expected me to actually know how to dance.
Shen Yanchuan walked in, his tone excited. "Yu Han, that dance was incredible!"
I pressed my lips into a smile and said mildly, "It was all right."
He stepped closer, his smile faintly teasing. "Look at you-with your looks and that figure, if you really danced like that in front of Gu Hansheng, forget five million. That's far too little. He'd happily throw fifty million at you."
I sighed softly. "Stop joking."
"I'm not joking." He narrowed his eyes, his smile unreadable. "You have more assets than anyone else on that stage."
I turned away, ignoring him, and left on the pretext of touching up my makeup.
Ten-odd minutes later, the host's voice came from outside again.
"Next, we'll begin tonight's voting!"
The atmosphere backstage immediately grew tense.
I walked up to the big screen and saw every contestant's photo and number listed on it.
My number was 27.
The lights flashed, and the music pulsed. The audience's votes began ticking up.
The numbers kept climbing, and the rankings kept changing.
I stared at the screen, a thin sheen of sweat forming on my palms.
At first, my vote count was far ahead.
But soon, another contestant, number 18, caught up.
Our vote counts moved almost neck and neck. One moment I was ahead, and the next she overtook me.
People around me cried out in surprise, while I felt as though my heart were suspended in midair.
Those few short minutes felt as long as a century.
At last, the numbers on the screen froze.
Number 18 and I had the same number of votes.
Even the host sounded surprised. "Oh my, what a rare sight tonight-we actually have a tie for first place!
Would contestants number 27 and number 18 please come onstage together!"
My breathing stopped for a beat.
I looked up toward the brilliantly lit stage,
feeling only that the light burned my eyes, while my heart began to race.
Because I could dimly see that gaze in the very front row by the stage,
slowly lifting and settling on me.
Those eyes belonged to someone I knew all too well.
The lights shone on the stage, so dazzling that I could barely open my eyes.
But even more glaring was him.
He wore a dark suit, his collar slightly open. The cold white light fell across his profile, its contours so sharply defined they were almost cruel.
Beside him, his white moonlight sat quietly, her hand affectionately linked through his arm.
She wore a pure white evening gown, the lines of her shoulders and neck soft and perfect, like a proud white swan.
Her expression was serene, and every movement carried a cool aloofness, as though she partook of none of the mortal world's smoke and fire.
Simply sitting quietly beside Gu Hansheng, she had already become the most eye-catching presence in the room.
And I...
The dark red gown I wore, almost entirely cutouts, made me look exactly like a woman of the streets.
The difference between us was as vast as heaven and earth.
If it were me, I would probably choose Shen Nian too.
But weren't they supposed to be on a business trip in Haicheng?
Why had they both appeared here?